Rigoberta

Summary Men with Guns and I, Rigoberta Menchu Men with Gun and I, Rigoberta Menchu are two stories that tell of the oppression that the Indians of these Latin communities went through. The Indian population throughout Central and South America were being forced by the guerrillas to leave their land, controlled by the rich, and tortured. Most of the Indians joined the guerrillas or landino’s, rather then live in such circumstances. Although both stories have similarities they show two different view points, one of a young women rising up to save her people from political power, and the other a doctor coming to terms with his ignorance of the feudal economic system happening outside the capital. Men with Guns is set in the mountains of a Central American country during a feudal economic system. Through the travels of Dr. Fuentes looking for his previous medical students, he uncovers numerous aspects of peasantry, and most important the political power of the rich have taking over the Indian’s and their land. The guerrillas maintained feudal conditions through violence and intimidation, the army held the populace in a constant state of fear.blindly kills anyone who tries to help the peasants, murdering all the doctors and priests that enter the villages. They do so to keep the peasants in ignorance, to prevent them from learning another way of life. Lacking knowledge of the outside world ensures that the peasants will remain in the plantations, because fear of the unknown is stronger than fear of the known. As Dr. Fuentes realizes what has been going on in his country, he see’s how ignorant he has been on the political status of his country. He realizes through Padre Portillo that his innocents in this case was a sin. He sent his students out into the country to save lives, but never prepared them for the conditions they were walking into. In the end after finding all his students were killed, he realized by being blind to the outside world he left behind